It didn't take long for Quynh to start feeling like he had made a mistake in following her go go sight-seeing. Compared to all of the pointless wandering they had been doing for over an hour, babysitting an unconscious Liu Bai seemed rather enticing.
He watched silently as the girl wandered the streets aimlessly, stopping at every little souvenir shop along the way – which was especially annoying to Quynh. Every single souvenir store sold the exact same things, and not in the theoretical sense that all of the trinkets were similar – but they quite literally were all retailing the exact same merchandise purchased from a foreign vendor.
Yet, somehow, the idiot girl walked into every single one of those shops and scoured then top to bottom as if it were all brand new to her. Quynh tried to point out several times that the jewelry was the same as the previous store, but Vanna just ignored him – which only served to irritate him further.
It felt like an eternity that they perused the overpriced 'local' specialty shops, but eventually, Vanna had finally had enough.
"This whole city is pretty amazing," Vanna mused with a satisfied smile. "Oh, right. What's Shizuka's favorite food?"
"Glad one of us is having fun. As far as Shizuka's food preferences, I have no idea," Quynh answered with a disinterested shrug.
Vanna frowned. "Haven't you known each other for a long time?"
"Yeah," he said, rolling his eyes, "but we don't exactly eat together often."
"Can I borrow your phone?" The girl sighed. "I'll ask her."
"Why do you want to know so badly?" Quynh's lips flattened into an unamused line.
"I think we should bring her and Liu Bai something to eat while we're out," Vanna replied. "I figure we will be passing a lot of tasty restaurants since we are walking all the way down to the pier, so we might as well since it's on the way.
The dragon cocked a brow, "Yeah? With what money?"
"Yours..?" Vanna hesitated, averting her gaze in embarrassment. "They're your friends! I would offer to pay but, as you know, I'm not very liquid right now."
"...Liquid?" Quynh echoed, vexed by the phrase. He had never heard it before, and that was impressive since he considered himself rather up-to-date with modern slang.
Vanna giggled at his oblivious reaction and said with an amused grin, "You look like a confused old man. I figured that as a businessman, you would understand – but apparently I was wrong. It just means I don't have any ready cash."
"Oh. So it's a reference to liquid assets?" Quynh clarified. "What stupid jargon is that?"
"Mmhm," Vanna affirmed. "Anyway, hurry and ask her what she would like to eat – or let me do it."
The dragon looked as though he were about to pop a blood vessel, but he closed his eyes for a second to ease his irritation. Despite how ridiculous her request was, though, he found himself inclined to do as she asked. So, he pulled out his phone and gave her a scowl, "I will ask her myself."
"Very well," the girl shrugged. "Let me know what she says."
Quynh unlocked his phone and started tapping furiously on the screen. He had opened his messages with Shizuka, whose name was 'cat' in his contact's list, and typed the message: "What do you like to eat. Answer at once."
Within moments of hitting the send button, his phone started buzzing – a phone call from Shizuka. Quynh hissed in frustration but answered regardless.
"Quynh? Are you okay?" Shizuka asked out of genuine concern. "Has someone taken your phone?"
"No! It's me!" Quynh said angrily in a lowered voice. "Why didn't you just answer the text instead of calling?"
"Because why the hell would you ask me that!" Shizuka's voice could be heard even from where Vanna was standing, several feet away. "You've never once shown interest in my likes or dislikes, so it's way too out of character to not be a suspicious act."
"Vanna asked me to find out what your favorite food was!" Quynh argued. "Just tell me, you ingrate. You are lucky I even bothered to ask! I could have ignored her suggestion and brought something you hate back for you to eat."
While their ridiculous conversation carried on, Vanna's attention wandered to other things in the vicinity. She stayed within sound and sight of Quynh, but explored the street they had been walking down. On the side of one of the buildings was a vending machine which, in and of itself, wasn't particularly exciting – but this particular machine had a wide variety of mango flavored drinks.
Mango was Vanna's favorite flavor of all time, and had been since she was a kid. In her pocket, she had a couple spare dollars that Quynh had leant her earlier to get a few treats in one of the shops. Vanna gingerly pulled the cash out and inserted it into the machine and purchased a nice, cold mango juice. Her mouth was watering at the thought of drinking it, especially excited by the fact that she would be able to enjoy it while near the beach.
She hadn't even cracked it open, though, when her attention was diverted elsewhere once again. A young boy, no older than six or seven, had been walking with his mother on the sidewalk and tripped. His knee was scraped and traces of blood trickled out of the wound – and the child, of course, had burst into tears. The boy's mother knelt beside him attempting to calm him, but her efforts were futile.
Vanna looked at the unopened drink in her hand, then at the boy, and sighed. She walked over to the mother and son pair and smiled warmly at them. The girl made eye contact with the mother to ensure it was okay for her to speak with the child – and once the older woman gave her a nod, she leaned down to talk to him.
"You fell down, huh?" Vanna asked with a sorrowful expression. "Having a scraped knee is the worst, but it'll feel better soon. You have to get home to take care of it."
The little boy looked curiously up at her through his mess of curly brown hair, and frowned – but his crying had started to subside, leaving only the occasional upset sniffle.
Vanna breathed a sigh of relief. If he hadn't relaxed a bit, she would have felt really awkward. The phoenix proceeded, "Do you like mango?"
He nodded apprehensively, but looked at the mango juice in her hand with a twinkle in his eye. Vanna handed him the can of juice and smiled warmly at him. The mother gave Vanna a meaningful look and an appreciative nod, after which she proceeded to help the boy up and prepare to leave.
"Thanks, lady," the kid said with a wave as they turned, disappearing into the crowd.
Vanna was overcome with warm and soft feelings, happy to have done a good deed – and then she realized that he had just called her 'lady'. Her shoulders slumped slightly when she came to the realization that she really was some 'lady', she wasn't a teenager anymore.
Quynh, who had finally gotten a satisfactory answer from Shizuka (traditional gnocchi, which was convenient since there were plenty of Italian restaurants on their way), watched Vanna's interaction from a distance. He couldn't help but purse his lips, a swarm of mixed emotions stirring in his chest.
The dragon couldn't help but wonder if the spirit of the phoenix was inherently selfless, or if all of them had ended up so kind out of pure coincidence. Vanna was just like the previous incarnations, after all.